Earlier this month, ultramarathon runner Joasia Zakrzewski placed third at the 2023 GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool 50-mile race. But as it turns out, she didn’t complete the race honestly.
Zakrzewski was disqualified from the marathon after officials discovered that she traveled 2.5 miles of the course by car. She claims that she was simply completing the remainder of the race in “a non-competitive way” after sustaining an injury, but she also accepted the third-place trophy and posed for pictures after crossing the finish line.
She claims she accepted the trophy because she “was tired and jetlagged and felt sick.
“I made a massive error accepting the trophy and should have handed it back,” Zakrzewski told the BBC. “I was tired and jetlagged and felt sick. I hold my hands up, I should have handed them back and not had pictures done but I was feeling unwell and spaced out and not thinking clearly.”
Wayne Drinkwater, the director of the GB Ultras race, does not necessarily buy this explanation.
“After the event, there was no attempt by Joasia to make us aware of what had happened and to give us an opportunity to correct the results or return the third place trophy during the course of the subsequent seven days.
“At the finish location, Joasia crossed the finish line timing mat, received her finisher medal and was presented with her trophy. At no point at the finish were the event team informed by Joasia that she was ‘not running the race competitively’.”
And he added: “None of our event team in question, with written statements to confirm this, were aware that Joasia had vehicle transport at any time during the race until we received information after the race from another competitor.
“If we had been made aware during the race, disqualification from the race would have been immediate at that point.”
[BBC]
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